How Much Is Your Home Worth?

Pricing Your Home to Sell: If you are planning to place your home on the market, one of the most important factors in making a quick sale is correctly pricing the property. What you think your home may be worth and what your real estate professional considers it to be worth may be two very different numbers. Depend on your agent to be your guide. Let him/her help you to understand how to price your home without letting sentiment get in the way. Pricing your home too high for its value (or your neighborhood) can mean it might end up sitting on the market; pricing it too low means that you’re losing potential revenue and leaving money on the table. By pricing your home “just right,” you will not only ensure that it will appraise for approximately the same value (increasing the likelihood that your buyer will secure financing), but you will likely see an offer or two – if you’re lucky, multiple offers.

The best way to determine how you should price your home is by looking at recent comparable sales in your neighborhood or surrounding area. Your real estate agent should be able to pull this information for you, but you can get an idea of recent sales from various Internet sites as well as public records.

Factors that will help determine how a home is priced:

Target a search area of about a quarter to half-mile radius around your house.

It helps if the homes you research are in the same school district as yours and the neighborhood complexion is generally the same as your own.

Focus on homes with approximately the same square footage and number of bedrooms that are a similar age, condition and style home with comparable features and upgrades.

Once you have an understanding of the “comps” in your area, your agent can help you decide how your home stacks up. Using his/her expertise can be helpful if you don’t have a lot of specifics about how your home compares against others in terms of features and upgrades, additions, or renovations. Your agent will be able to tell you about market conditions and may point out any special features or deficits that might affect your listing price. Your agent will also be more objective about whether the unique aspects of your home that you may love (for example, a swimming pool) will hold the same appeal for buyers when you try to sell.

With the Tampa Bay housing market in better shape now than in recent years and inventory levels low, chances of selling your home quickly are good – but this still depends greatly on pricing. With a little research and the expert advice of your agent, you’ll be able to price your home just right to make that sale.